Young gray whale entertains Southern California crowd

CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — A juvenile gray whale drew a crowd of hundreds as it took a break from migrating for an afternoon dalliance in a Southern California lagoon.

More than 300 people lined the shoreline in Carlsbad on Monday as the healthy California gray swam back and forth under a road bridge that crosses the entrance to the Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The San Diego Union-Tribune http://bit.ly/2vix2Rq reports SeaWorld researchers estimated the whale to be about 15 feet long (4.5 meter) and 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) and say it was likely resting amid its annual journey back north from Baja California.

Carlsbad police arrived to keep traffic moving until the whale swam back out into the ocean around 4 p.m.